What Does Leviticus 13:14 Mean?
But when living flesh appears in him, he shall be soiled.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.THE KEY
The decisive sign is living flesh: when it appears, the verse changes the person’s status.
THE MEANING
When living flesh appears in a person, the verse names that person unclean; the visible bodily condition carries consequence. The Hebrew חַי (chai, “living”) describes the flesh through the reality of life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More extensive visible affliction does not automatically mean a more severe verdict: just before this, the inspection calls an all-white condition clean, while the appearance of living flesh is unclean.
THE ROOT
בָּשָׂר חַי
basar chai
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live; to be alive.
The phrase בָּשָׂר חַי (basar chai, “living flesh”) describes the exposed flesh through life itself. The three-letter seed חיה (chayah, “to live”) also grows into words for life and living beings, so the sign is living tissue appearing.
ALSO GROWS
chayyim: Life; the state of being alive.
חַיִּים
The same seed gives the word for life itself, so the phrase names the flesh by the reality of being alive.
chayyah: A living creature; an animal.
חַיָּה
The root names embodied living beings too, linking the phrase’s living tissue to life in a body.
THE PATTERN
A visible condition carries a verdict that can turn on its precise form, not simply its extent.
Then the priest shall see it; and behold, if the striking has covered all his flesh, he shall declare clean the one who has the stroke; it has all turned white; he is clean.You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
And the LORD God shaped the ground-being, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.Genesis uses the same root חיה (chayah, “to live”) in נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (nefesh chayyah, “living soul”). Here that life-root qualifies בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), making the visible sign specifically living tissue.
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